jim walsh, an expert at international security at mit joins me now and, jim, what was your take on this speech? >> well, deb, i think you're right. i expected, as happens every year, ahmadinejad, well, i expect many different ahmadinejads. i expect the ones that has meetings like the two meetings i attended is kindler and gentler and the one that speaks in front of the general assembly is fiery to speak to that audience back home in iran or send the message to the world and didn't happen. he was pretty tame all throughout. i think what we were getting was a message of, we're reasonable and we're willing to talk and that sort of sets the stage for what will happen the u.s. election and early next year. >> you know, jim, ahmadinejad, really, he's on his way out. the iranian economy is in crisis and high inflation and money has been choked off by sanctions and many iranians are embarrassed. is he becoming irrelevant now that he is really a in the last nine months of his presidency? his leadership there? >> you know, deb, i think that's a good question. i think we as americans, we think ira